Another day of exploring and some RV maintenance

After our busy day at Put-in-Bay, we took it a little easy on Wednesday.  We took a drive to the nearby communities of Marblehead and Lakeside. 

Somebody had told Tom that we should check out the little vacation community of Lakeside.  One square mile in size, sitting right on the shore of Lake Erie, Lakeside is a Chautauqua – a private community founded by the Methodist Church in 1973.  Visitors aren’t really allowed, but we were given a 30-minute pass to drive in and look around.  Tom asked if any of the homes were for sale, and the gate guard’s response was “Do you have a million dollars?”  We drove around for about 20 minutes, and really didn’t see anything that inspire us to drop a million bucks.  The cottages are tiny and close together, and the roads are super narrow!

None of us had ever heard of a Chautauqua, and it felt a little cult-like to us, so we cut our visit short and continued on to Marblehead.

Our first stop was the Rocky Point Winery.

We were in luck – it was “Wine Wednesday” and bottles were $3.00 off!

They have a beautiful patio and outdoor seating area, so after tasting several of their wines, we bought a bottle of Concord and a cheese & meat tray, and enjoyed them out on the lawn.

From the winery, we stopped the Marblehead Lighthouse to take a look around.    

It was a beautiful day, and the water was so calm.

Our next stop was the Fireland’s Winery (have you noticed a theme!?!), where they had live music during happy hour.

We enjoyed the music of Justo Saborit,

while we sampled flatbread pizzas and pulled pork sliders, along with a couple more bottles of wine! 

It was a lovely early dinner, but we needed a couple hours of naptime to recover from all the wine!

Since it was Darren & Tyler’s last evening with us, there was one more Sandusky institution we needed to introduce them to . . . Toft’s Dairy!

Nobody can turn down ice cream!

It was so much fun having friends stop by for a few days, and we were happy we could show them some of the highlights of this area of Ohio.  Thanks guys!  See you in Florida!

A few days later, Tom was wishing they were still around . . .

We had a little bit of a storm one evening, and there were lots of branches and even sections of trees down around the campground

Luckily no campers (or tents!) were damaged by the flying branches!

Tom got on our roof the next day to make sure there were no branches up there, and discovered that one of the slide toppers had started to separate from the side of the RV, because the seam had opened up.  He wished Darren was there to help him tackle that repair!

He did some research on taking the slide toppers off and putting them back on, and we bought some heavy-duty outdoor upholstery thread at Joann Fabrics.  Armed with knowledge and supplies, the next morning before Bryce had to go to work, he and Tom were able to remove the slide topper.

Tom thought we’d be able to stitch it back up and put it right back up before Bryce had to leave, but that wasn’t going to happen . . . it was REALLY dirty!

Bryce left for work, and we got busy with the scrubbing bubbles.

It took a while, but it looked a lot better when he was done!

After it dried, I re-sewed the seam that had come loose, as well as both side seams that were beginning to come out, too.  That was the easy part!

Bryce wasn’t going to be home until late, so we attempted to re-install the topper ourselves.

It went on pretty easily, and once Tom got up on the roof, he was able to pull it the rest of the way on and get it lined up properly.

Last step – rolling the excess material back on the roller.

After it was re-installed, we put the slide in and back out a couple of times to make sure the fabric rolled in and out without gapping or binding . . . All good!

It probably would have been easier with a 2nd person who could get up high on the ladder (or who was tall enough not to have to get up really high on the ladder!), but we managed to get it done. 

Now I have a feeling Tom is going to want to take the other three down and clean them and reinforce the hems . . . hopefully those can wait until we have some helpers around!

Exploring Put-in-Bay with friends

Just a day after Nicolas left for Virginia, our friends, Darren & Tyler, who we had met at the Monaco/Holiday Rambler Maintenance Rally in May, arrived at Camp Sandusky.  They were on their way from Florida to Minnesota to visit family for the summer, so they stopped by for a couple days to visit with us.

They arrived in the late afternoon on Monday, and once they had their motorhome all set up across the road from us, they joined us for lasagna dinner, followed by a campfire.  It was a beautiful evening, and even Bryce was home to enjoy the fire with us.

Tom and I hadn’t been to Put-in-Bay yet, and we thought it would be a fun place to explore with the guys.  Put-in-Bay is a small town on South Bass Island in Lake Erie, and it’s pretty well-known as a party island, especially on the weekends.  During the week, it’s a little lower key, though, so we were looking forward to it.

They guys ran some errands in the morning while I worked and Tom put a few hours in at the campground, and then around noon we headed for Catawba Island where we would catch the Miller Ferry over to Put-in-Bay.  We considered taking the bikes, but decided that we would rent a golf cart instead.  For a weekday, it was still pretty crowded and all the free parking at the ferry dock was taken, so we paid $5 and paid in the next lot.  Once again, we arrived as the ferry was loading . . . and we had to wait for the next one . . . at least we were first in line!

The water was much calmer on this trip than it was during our trip to Kelley’s Island, and we were glad since we were on the upper level of the ferry!

These little twins were on the boat with us – so cute!

Almost there!

So, somebody told Tom that the golf carts by the ferry dock were more expensive than the ones in town, and that we should take the shuttle from the ferry to downtown and get a cart there.

We didn’t question this information and just jumped on the shuttle ($2.50 each, each way) which takes you the 2-1/2 miles from the ferry dock to downtown.  So, for $10 to get to town and $10 to get back to the ferry dock at the end of the day, you have to save $20 on the golf cart to make the math work out . . . and of course the carts were the same price in both locations!  Oh well . . . live and learn!

So we got our cart and headed out!

We left the crowds in town behind, and headed to the less populated areas of the island.  Our route took us past the Boardwalk and the Marinas,

and lots of really beautiful homes.

The first stop on our tour of the island was the Benson Ford Ship Home.

OK, so somebody told me the story of this ship, but I cannot for the life of me remember who it was.  You can read the whole story here, but basically, the Benson Ford was a cargo ship owned by Ford Motor Company and used to transport coal from Toledo, OH to Duluth, MN, and then bring iron ore to the Rouge Assembly Plant in Dearborn, MI.  It was in service for 50 years, and then decommissioned and sold to another shipping company in Cleveland, and renamed the John Dykstra II so that Ford could retain the Benson Ford name for another ship.  It never sailed again, though, and eventually the owners decided to remove the front superstructure and have it transported to the island of Put-in-Bay where they would use it as a summer home.  They tried to get a permit to allow its use as a Bed & Breakfast, but were denied, so it went up for auction in 1999.  The new owners renamed it the Benson Ford, and it looked like they are in the process of making renovations.

Pretty cool story!

They certainly have a beautiful view from this spot,

and there’s a small park next to the home (where we got our view of the ship home) with a chain link fence covered with locks . . . I don’t know the story behind that!

From there, we passed by several vineyards,

and then arrived at the South Bass Island State Park.

There’s a nice campground,

and even a few rental yurts on the hill overlooking the lake.

We stopped at the beach, which was pretty rocky – hard to walk on --

Darren & Tyler thought the water was cold . . . it wasn’t (Florida boys!!)

Back on the golf cart,

we continued towards the west end of the island, stopping for a quick hike along the wildflower trail (where we didn’t see a single wildflower!),

and eventually reached the South Bass Lighthouse.

Nice view from here too!

Pretty flowers on the back of the building.

We were ready for a drink and a snack by then, so our next stop was the Heineman Winery.

No wine tasting here, but they have a nice garden area, so we bought a bottle of Pink Catawba and a cheese tray to share and a bag of Bugles – Darren had to have the Bugles!).

I must say, the wine regions of southern Ontario and northern Ohio, along the shores of Lake Erie, are probably my favorites.  The wines here are sweeter and fruitier, and I love them!

We got back on the cart, with Tom behind the wheel (whoa – can you go straight, Tom!?!), and made our way back towards town.  We passed a cute church on the way,

and an interesting bar on the back of a firetruck.  That’s different!

Put-in-Bay is also home to the Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial. 

The Memorial commemorates Oliver Hazard Perry’s victory in the Battle of Lake Erie (War of 1812) and celebrates the enduring peace between the US, Great Britain and Canada.  It’s the largest Greek Doric column in the world.

Normally, you can ride an elevator to the top of the column (the view must be fantastic from up there!), but it’s currently closed for cleaning through next summer.

From there, we continued on to the eastern end of the island and the Scheef East Point Nature Preserve.

There was a view of a couple surrounding islands, and it was a good location for photos.

on the way back, we took a short walk to Massie’s Cliffside Nature Preserve – also a beautiful location.

We finally saw some wildflowers on that walk . . . it should have been the wildflower trail!

After all this exploring, we were ready for some dinner!  We made our way back to The Boardwalk and enjoyed a delicious dinner overlooking the bay.  A great way to end our day at Put-in-Bay!

We still had to get back to the ferry, though.  We decided that Tom would drop the other 3 of us at the ferry dock and then take the cart back to the rental place and catch the shuttle back to the dock.  The cart was due back by 8pm, and we thought that would give us plenty of time to catch the 8:30 ferry . . . but it turns out there isn’t an 8:30 ferry.  The ferry runs every half hour, EXCEPT for 8:30 pm.  Well, OK, we just waited for the 9pm ferry (the last one of the day)!

It was a really fun day, and we were so glad to have Tyler and Darren there to explore the island with us!